Today is the first Sunday of Lent, but our readings are less about Lent and more about Jesus.According to Matthew, Jesus was baptized, then headed directly into the wilderness. The last verse before todays’ story begins is when, at Jesus’ baptism, God said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

The Church celebrates Transfiguration Sunday on the Sunday before Lent begins, and in that story too, God says, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Maybe both Matthew and whoever put together the order of Sundays were making a point. That’s the last thing Jesus heard before he went into the desert. It was his identity.

What does that have to do with us? What does it say to us? Jesus knew who he was, and that’s what he was tempted to not believe. He was tempted to not trust God, and to not trust himself, and what he knew to be true.

The Greek word for ‘devil’ comes from two verbs, dia and ballo (diablo) which together mean ‘to throw over ‘and in common usage, ‘to mislead, and to deceive.’ Jesus is tempted to use his power for himself, (in turning stones into bread), to use his power for security, (throw yourself off this temple and angels will catch you), and to turn around and worship something less than God, in trade for being given all the kingdoms of the world. I’ve read that Jesus was tempted with “possessions, power, and prestige.” He is tempted to make his power, his dreams and aspirations, and the meaning of his life smaller, Much smaller than it really is. “Use your power to make bread for yourself. Use your power to ensure your own security. Use your power so that you are the greatest.” He is being mis-led. Evil says, “Prove who you are, prove your greatness to me,” but by doing so, he would be making himself less. “Don’t trust what you know is true. Don’t trust who you are. Don’t trust the truth within yourself. Prove it. Prove it to others, and then if they believe it, you can prove it to yourself.”

As opposed to, “You are my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

And this is very clever. Jesus isn’t tempted by rational arguments. He is tempted by Scripture. Evil is trying to twist something very important to Jesus: words of holiness that he believes in, to mislead him into not believing the meaning of his life.

But Jesus remains true to who he is. He stays steady in trusting what God told him. He is incredibly hungry, but he knows God will provide what he needs. He is vulnerable out in the desert, he is mortal and he can be hurt or killed, but he doesn’t give in to evil’s call to use his power to be safe and secure. Evil says, “I will give you all the kingdoms of the world if you worship me.” Jesus knows that he could turn the world around if people looked to him as their king, but he’s not going to give in, and live for something smaller than God.

He is God’s beloved Son, and he trusts God.

Then we have the story of temptation in Genesis. This isn’t meant to be taken literally. Ha adam is Hebrew for ‘man’ and Isha means ‘woman.’ This is a story told to reveal many truths: 1) creation comes from Goodness, 2) God intends only Goodness for humanity, 3) somehow evil gets in there, confuses people, tricks them, and misleads them into making wrong choices, and 4) that’s how pain and death enter the world.

The man and woman know that they aren’t supposed to eat from one particular tree, but again, evil tries to mislead and deceive them. The snake says to the woman, “God said, ‘You shall not eat from any of these trees, right?” but she catches him, and says, “No, just this one, because we’d die.” Then Evil puts out another lie for them to believe, “You wouldn’t really DIE, it’s just that you’d know things like God does. God’s just jealous.” And the man and woman fall right into the trap. They can’t live in trust. They can’t trust God, and the truth God told them. They can’t trust what they know, but instead choose to believe what someone else is saying.

What does this have to do with Lent? What about prayer, and fasting and everything? Prayer strengthens our relationship with God. It adds to the trust. It clarifies the truths that we know are within us. God reveals truths to us in our hearts and minds, and we need to trust that.

I have come to a place in my life where I know that I need to cut down on extra-curricular activities. I am too busy, and don’t take enough time for my own reflection, and for loved ones in my life. I know this about myself. I am making a conscious effort to say ‘no’ to good things that I’m doing for the wrong reason.

On Ash Wednesday, I got a call from a woman that used to do adoption workshops with me. She worked at Children’s Home Society, and I had started a program for adoptive families at my old church. Now she works for a hospice program downtown. One of their clients really benefited from chaplain visits, but recently got a little more healthy and moved from hospice to palliative care, although she’ll probably go back into hospice in awhile. Medicare doesn’t pay for chaplains for palliative care, so they couldn’t send anyone out to visit her anymore. My friend was looking around for churches, thought we were close, and saw that I was a minister here.

I felt complemented. I was honored that she thought of me. I figured I could help this woman out, and I wanted to rush in and ‘fix it.’

Then I found out that my friend was wrong, and the woman doesn’t live anywhere near here. She was hoping to be visited twice a month. I’m not able to visit our own members twice a month. I thought about visiting on my own time, but that seemed like too much. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that this was NOT what I was called to do. In fact, it would be the opposite of what I was called to do.But it was very hard to let go of this image of myself as being able to do everything for anybody. So, I said, “Let me think about it for a day.”Carol, Lonnie and I were eating supper together before the Ash Wednesday service, and I discussed it with them. Carol immediately said, “No. No no no! Absolutely not! That is a really stupid idea.” Lonnie was a little more polite, but he agreed with her.

The reality is, I knew that all along. Why did I need to check it out with them? Why couldn’t I trust what I knew? God has been telling me pretty clearly for awhile now that I need to slow down and take on less ‘extras’ in my life, but I needed to hear it again from someone else, rather than trusting what I know to be true.

What does this trust have to do with Lent? What about prayer, and fasting and everything? Prayer (and meditation) strengthen our relationship with God. It adds to the trust. It clarifies the truths that we know are within us. God reveals truths to us in our hearts and minds, and we need to trust that.

Fasting… Jesus was fasting. Fasting is a practice that is all over the place in the scriptures. Moses fasted for 40 days and nights while writing the Ten Commandments. (Ex. 34: 27-28). Elijah fasted 40 days and nights while walking to Mt. Sinai to meet God. (1 Kings 19:8). Ghandi fasted and he was Hindu. Muslims fast every Ramadan, Jews fast on the Day of Atonement, and Native Americans fast during vision quests. It is a spiritual practice all over the world, and people have been practicing it for centuries and centuries.

But if you’re not into fasting from food, you might want to fast from things that connect us to evil. We could fast from doing the things that make someone we love crazy. We could fast from time sitting before the TV or internet, or staring at our cell phones rather than talking to the person beside us.

Our reading for Ash Wednesday says, “Fast from oppressing people, fast from injustice, fast from selfishness, and instead, do the opposite. Be generous with the homeless and the poor. Get rid of anything that weighs others down, blames others, or spreads evil. Instead, do good and help the world.” (Is. 58: 1-12)

The common theme in Genesis as well as the temptation of Jesus, is being tempted to not trust in our relationship with God and what God tells us. These stories also show that God is right there in the worst, most messy, and maybe embarrassing parts of our lives. When Jesus struggles with hard things that are very close to his heart, God is right there. When the man and woman struggled with whether or not to live their lives in trust of God, God was part of the equation. And when they made a rotten choice, God stayed with them.

Jesus and Adam and Eve, the man and woman were tempted to live outside of a trusting relationship with God, and what they knew to be true. Jesus trusted God, and he trusted in himself. Adam and Eve, not so much. Today’s scripture reminds us of a basic truth that we too often let go: God is trustworthy, and so are you.